Two-plus decades ago, not long after the release of 2002’s stellar Walking In A Straight Line, North Carolina’s The Mayflies USA, puzzlingly called it a day, despite growing buzz and their best reviews to date.
Twenty years later, they realized they still had a little something left in the tank. And as if they’re trying to prove a point or simply justify their hiatus, they’ve managed to one-up their last release. Kickless Kids is a fantastic collection of power pop, crammed with memorable choruses, beautiful melodies, and infectious jangly guitars. You’d have to go back to R.E.M. to find a Southern band that can play power pop with such an effortless style.
Burned out on touring, the members all kept busy during their protracted time off, including bassist Adam Price becoming a published novelist and guitarist Matt Long working as the Rolling Stones’ production assistant. “We all went off and did our thing…” says singer/guitarist McMichaels. “In the old days, we might have sounded like the Raspberries, but we were living a lot more like The Replacements, almost feral. But we’ve all learned how to actually play since then. I think we’re a really good rock band now.” And they prove that across a dozen tracks here.
Lyrically, the opening track, “Thought the Rain Was Gone,” seems like obvious “sad bastard” music, but the melody is so damn catchy (with longtime band friend and sometime producer Chris Stamey on keyboards). But it’s the second song, “Calling the Bad Ones Home,” where you realize this is more than just a nostalgia record for Gen X kids raised on college radio. The song is a two-minute exercise in writing the perfect power pop song.
Elsewhere, “Cabbagetown,” about a cleaned-up drug addict looking back on his glory days, proves the band can find poignancy and a singalong chorus anywhere. But the album’s finest moment comes on the closing track, “Roll It Down the Line,” which is simply perfect and would be the ideal song for The Mayflies USA to ride off into the sunset on. Conversely, if this album proves anything, it’s that the band is just now writing the best songs of their career and should stick around for a few more records.
